Television

Dubbed ‘Fear Factor’ will sell: SJ Clement

MUMBAI: The land which sleeps, eats and breathes action has another reason to jump with joy.

Sun Network has decided to treat its viewers to high octane visuals in the form of the popular Hindi show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi.

The show will be dubbed in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam; the one hour episodes will be aired on its general entertainment channels (GECs). Dhil Dhil Dhil- Fear Factor will air on Sundays at 12 pm on Sun TV starting 29 June, Fear factor: Sahasa Veerulu- Veelu Denikaina Ready will be telecast on Gemini TV, Monday to Thursday at 9:30 pm from 23 June and Sahasigam- Fear Factor can be caught on Surya TV, Thursday and Friday at 8 pm.

Sun TV Network programming head for GEC channels SJ Clement says that the network is confident on garnering audiences from the show. “Immaterial of being dubbed content, it is the gut-wrenching action/adventure that the viewer wants and through the show we are giving them that entertainment,” he says dismissing any concerns related to the content being dubbed.

The only channel excluded from the dubbed version is the Kannada channel, Udaya TV. As a rule in the state, no dubbed content can be aired on any channel.

Agreeing on it, says DDB MudraMax AVP and head of south Anil Sathiraju, “Just as how dubbed south Indian movies work well on Hindi channels, the same can be said about the reverse. People have accepted dubbed content because of the novelty factor in it. Advertisers will also be keen on the show.”

Seasons 1, 2, 4 and 5 will be shown continuously till the entire stock is exhausted. Season 3 has been excluded since it had Priyanka Chopra as host and to keep the continuity of Akshay Kumar as anchor the decision was taken. However, it will slowly move on to the season 5 which had Rohit Shetty as the host.

“However, the effect Akshay and Rohit will have on the audiences will surely vary as Rohit is more popular down south,” adds Sathiraju.

The network however is not looking at recreating the show for the southern market anytime soon. The reason behind so is the high budget that needs to be pumped into creating one. Says Clement, “It is an expensive show. If this works, we shall certainly go in for producing the show in the respective languages.”

A cross channel promotional activity is planned along with radio spots and selected outdoor campaign. Digital activity through Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Google+ is also in the pipeline.

Talks are currently on with sponsors and advertisers for the adventure show.